Featured Products by
Check Point Software Technologies

Check Point VPN-1 Accelerator Card II

The Challenge:
Internet-based Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provide a flexible and cost-effective alternative to leased lines for wide-area data communications. Organizations are rapidly deploying VPNs across the entire enterprise to deliver secure connectivity to remote offices and mobile users. And with broad vendor support for data encryption and key negotiation standards, corporations can now ensure VPN interoperability with business partners.

The growing volume of VPN traffic, however, may impose burdensome resource demands on the VPN solution. The computationally intensive tasks required with data encryption and key generation can quickly exhaust CPU and memory resources, causing the VPN solution to become a performance bottleneck.

The Solution:
Check Point Software Technologies meets the performance challenge with the VPN-1™ Accelerator Card, a hardware-based cryptographic accelerator developed by Chrysalis-ITS. The VPN-1 Accelerator Card delivers high-performance Virtual Private Networking for users of Check Point Software's market-leading VPN-1 GatewayTM solution. A fully plug-and-play solution, the Accelerator Card provides kernel-level integration with VPN-1 to perform the processor-intensive cryptographic operations required by IKE IPSec.

Hardware-based VPN acceleration enables Check Point's VPN solution to scale from T1 to T3 links while freeing gateway resources for other security tasks.

Product Features

• Hardware-based VPN acceleration
• IPSec and IKE (ISAKMP/Oakley) compliant
• Full plug-and-play integration with FireWall-1

Product Benefits

• Scales VPN-1 to support the most demanding VPN deployments
• Offload CPU resources to perform other security tasks
• Integrates seamlessly in VPN-1 gateways with no additional management overhead

VPN Performance Acceleration
The VPN-1 Accelerator Card provides hardware-based data encryption and data authentication freeing FireWall-1 to perform other vital security tasks. With this level of performance and scalability, Check Point’s VPN solution is perfect for all size deployments, from small office installations to large-scale VPN aggregation points. Network managers can now be confident that their VPN never becomes a performance bottleneck.

Transparent Configuration and Management
The VPN-1 Accelerator Card is a PCI-compatible card providing full plug-and-play support with VPN-1. The software drivers for the Accelerator Card are installed as part of the VPN-1 installation process, providing seamless integration with Check Point's VPN solution. The Accelerator Card is administered directly by the gateway and can be installed on new or existing FireWall-1 gateways with no reconfiguration.

In addition, auto-detection of hardware failures prompts VPN-1 to bypass the hardware encryption facilities and utilize the software encryption capability of FireWall-1. This exceptional level of fault tolerance guarantees VPN up-time and delivers secure enterprise connectivity.